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Permeability characteristics of the epithelium in the rat caput epididymidis

Summary. Micropuncture techniques were used to study the in-vivo transfer of radioactive compounds of different molecular weights across the epithelium of the rat caput epididymidis. Small molecular weight compounds such as ³H₂O and [¹⁴C]urea equilibrated in less than 20 min and 2 h respectively after intravenous injection. Compounds of larger molecular weight ([³H]polyethylene glycol, [³H]inulin and ¹²⁵I-labelled bovine serum albumin) entered the lumen more slowly and reached less than 5% of blood plasma concentrations 3 h after injection. The luminal concentration of [³H]inulin remained below 7% of the blood level for 18 h. These results demonstrate that a permeability barrier exists in the epithelium of the rat caput epididymidis.

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